50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

Jean Gan
Duke University
I hAVE ALwAYS BEEN comForTABLE wITh 
Tae Kwon Do, music, 
art, and friends. However, as a horse in Chinese astrology, I also need 
to explore different pursuits, and step outside of my comfort zone. This 
summer, I ventured beyond the pasture of my comfort zone, and par-
ticipated onstage in the high school summer musical for the first time.
The biggest challenge of taking this leap was overcoming my own 
mental barrier—the sign that read, Jean, you have never had a dance 
lesson; you have no idea how to sing or act. Out of fear that I would 
feel uncomfortable, I believed that playing violin in the pit orchestra 
was my calling. However, after three years of pit orchestra experience, I 
longed to shine in that coveted spotlight. I did not tell my friends about 
how I wondered what it would feel like to act onstage in front of eight 
hundred people. When I saw that the title of the musical for this past 
summer was Anything goes, I knew that no one would think worse 
of me for following my aspirations. Confident that my friends would 
encourage me, I let go of my cautious Chinese approach to life, and let 
the free-spirited horse within me escape.
Despite my decision to participate in the musical, I was terrified. I 
wondered whether I would meet any friends and if I would be able to 
learn to sing and dance well. My fears were intensified because I missed 
the first week of rehearsals while at a leadership conference in new 
York City. When I attended my first rehearsal, arriving directly from 
new York City, my fortitude kept me steady. With confidence and new 
York City memories in my heart, I joined the rest of the cast and reveled 
in the excitement. I followed my new friends with a passion for an art 
form that I hardly knew, but willingly embraced.
From that moment on, I was a horse freely cantering around an 
open meadow. I had discovered a new point of view, and the grass was 

---

Chapter 10: Heritage and Identity
103
greener than it had ever seemed. Some days, I came home with new 
dance steps to show my parents. On other days, I drew the designs of 
my costumes when my descriptions at the dinner table would not suf-
fice. The make-up artist tried three times to find the right blush, while 
the hair team created a different style for me each night. Having to 
think up a new hairstyle each time was parallel to my shifting opinion 
of my life and self. Although participating in the musical was initially 
petrifying, I discovered that taking such a risk was the optimal way to 
grow and change.
now, I will not shy away from being in a musical cast because my 
comfort zone is expanding. Soon it will encompass the grand scope 
of my interests: from singing and dancing to throwing a sales pitch 
in front of judges; from learning how to execute precision front-flips 
to building my favorite piano repertoire; from designing a webpage 
to arranging chamber music, or developing optics technologies. Such 
passions will continue to define who I am and what I hope to achieve. 
My character is being shaped and reshaped by my learning experiences 
because I am an impressionable human being. As I continue to explore, 
I know that my interests will solidify into a cohesive whole. Until then, 
I seek to enrich myself with new opportunities and never look back.
AnAlysis
Besides being the name of the musical in which she participated, 
the title of Jean’s essay, “Anything Goes,” also captures the “free-spir-
ited horse” within her that “ventured beyond the pasture of [her] com-
fort zone, and participated onstage in the high school musical for the 
first time.” The “horse” metaphor not only captures Jean’s adventurous 
spirit, but also ties to her Chinese heritage, as seen in her reference to 
the horse in Chinese astrology. Like Angelica’s references to her heri-
tage in “No Longer Invisible” (Chapter 7), Jean’s mention of her zodiac 
sign is a creative and subtle way to introduce her culture to readers 
without her ethnicity becoming the core focus of the paper. Jean al-
ludes to her heritage again at the end of the second paragraph, when 
she decides to “let go of [her] cautious Chinese approach to life.” Some 
readers might take offense to this cultural stereotype; when writing 
about culture, it is important to be mindful of distinguishing between 
personal beliefs and stereotypes.
Jean’s second paragraph gives us an excellent sense of her in-
ternal debates over whether or not she should take a risk and play in 
the pit as she swings between fear and confidence. Many successful 

---

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays
104
essays not only relate events but also one’s feelings and thoughts re-
garding the activity. Jean notes that she was “terrified” before the musi-
cal but shows her open-minded spirit when she “willingly embraced” 
the new art form. She refers back to the mentions of horse and free-
dom when she writes, “I was a horse freely cantering around an open 
meadow.” The specific examples that follow demonstrate the diversity 
of new activities to which Jean is introduced and the eagerness with 
which she embraces each one. Jean does a wonderful job of explain-
ing the horse-in-meadow simile with concrete, real-life examples such 
as these: showing her parents dance steps, drawing costume designs, 
and experimenting with new hairstyles.
In her concluding paragraph, Jean ties together the many ex-
amples she used in her essay to show us how her “comfort zone is 
expanding.” She illustrates some of the contours of this comfort zone, 
which she calls the “grand scope” of her interests: “from singing and 
dancing to throwing a sales pitch in front of judges; from learning how 
to execute precision front-flips to building my favorite piano repertoire; 
from designing a webpage to arranging chamber music, or developing 
optics technologies.” Illustrations like these can sometimes feel like 
long lists. Jean might have chosen to list fewer activities so that what 
she did choose to include could stand out more. The first line, which 
contrasts singing and dancing with throwing a sales pitch, is most di-
rectly relevant to the essay since singing and dancing were new ex-
periences from the musical and throwing a sales pitch may have been